Global Policy Forum

By Nadav Shragai

The United States has been pressuring Israel not to allow residents of a new Jewish neighborhood in East Jerusalem take up occupancy of the their homes, according to a report on Army Radio on Friday.

Sources close to the Bush administration say that allowing the inhibition of a Jewish enclave in a densely population Arab section of the capital could stir up tensions at a particularly sensitive time in the Middle East. The radio reported that a senior official from the U.S. Consulate General in East Jerusalem discussed the matter with Jerusalem mayor Uri Lupoliansky, where he also expressed the administration's hope that the demolition of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem would be halted.

Lupoliansky stressed that he is unable to prevent occupants moving into the homes, since all the requisite approvals have already been issued. A similar message was also replayed by the administration to the Prime Minister's Office, although sources in Jerusalem deny having received any such message.

Families move in

On Wednesday night, after over two years of delays, several Jewish families moved into the new Jewish neighborhood of Ma'aleh Ha'Zeitim in East Jerusalem, immediately adjacent to the Arab neighborhood of Ras El Amoud. The move was coordinated with the Prime Minister's Office after having been postponed a further time two weeks ago due to the launch of the American-led attack on Iraq.

So far, 35 of the 51 apartments that have been completed in the neighborhood have been purchased and more families are expected to move in during the coming weeks and months. Another 68 apartments are slated for construction.

The Peace Now movement, which sees the building of a Jewish neighborhood in the heart of Arab East Jerusalem as a provocation, will hold a protest vigil at the site today.

One of the reasons for the delay in moving the families into the new neighborhood was due to the East Jerusalem Electricity Company's (which is a subcontractor of the Israel Electric Corporation) refusal to connect Ma'aleh Ha'Zeitim and other Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem to the electricity network. The EJEC petitioned the High Court of Justice against the order to connect the new neighborhood of Ma'aleh Ha'Zeitim to the electricity network. The High Court turned down the petition and the neighborhood was finally connected last December.

The construction of Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem is believed to be aimed at blocking any possibility of dividing Jerusalem. Such construction is also thought to help scuttle plans for the Jerusalem corridor espoused in the Beilin-Abu Mazen document and the Camp David accords. Such a corridor would give Palestinians direct access to the Muslim holy sites in the Old City of Jerusalem without having to pass through sovereign Isareli territory.

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